


this crooked posture

by grainjew



Series: took our time and the time has flown [2]
Category: POKEMON Detective Pikachu (2019), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Ash Doesn't Age, Gen, bonnie is there, but neither of them will ever figure that out, everyone's writing this fic but like. i had to do it also, fun fact actually. tim watched some of ash’s league matches as a kid, i spent DAYS shaking this until it spat out an emotional arc. it was very trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 02:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20038312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: Tim was turning away from Pikachu — hispartner,and the way Pikachu had smiled at him when he said that almost made a grin split his face in response — to ask Mewtwo to fix all the unnaturallities that Howard Clifford had used it to create, that made Tim's stomach clench and twist in instinctive panic, when a blur of motion barreled into Mewtwo, all yellows and blues and reds resolving into a boy.He was ten, if Tim had to guess, younger than Tim'd been when his mom died, and he had a pikachu on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around Mewtwo with a ferocity that was a little bit terrifying.Or: Ash and co arrive five minutes late with starbucks to the Detective Pikachu plot, which is basically just in time to give Mewtwo a hug





	this crooked posture

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).

> timeline: ~20-25 years after the first episode of the anime; a few months after the last scene of Static (Ability) -- hence ash taking the phantump from that scene travelling!  
NOTE: this fic is set in the timeline of my immortal ash and pikachu series ! read the previous fic for full context but basically ash an pikachu dont age and dont die, mostly because of legendary overexposure. theyre having a good time
> 
> title is from [heirloom by sleeping at last](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avniWHc0zVM), which is a song with absurdly strong detective pikachu movie vibes

Tim was turning away from Pikachu — his _ partner, _ and the way Pikachu had smiled at him when he said that almost made a grin split his face in response — to ask Mewtwo to fix all the unnaturallities that Howard Clifford had used it to create, that made Tim's stomach clench and twist in instinctive panic, when a blur of motion barreled into Mewtwo, all yellows and blues and reds resolving into a boy.

He was ten, if Tim had to guess, younger than Tim'd been when his mom died, and he had a pikachu on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around Mewtwo with a ferocity that was a little bit terrifying. Only seconds behind him, a strange-looking greninja was running up with a phantump clutched protectively in one arm, and then a blonde woman a bit older than Tim he felt he should really recognize.

"Sorry I'm late," said the boy. He released his grip and dropped three feet back to the ground without flinching, slung an arm over the greninja’s shoulder so that his hand landed on the phantump’s head.

His pikachu chirped a contrite “Pika…” and ducked its head.

_ Well, you can't be everywhere, _ said Mewtwo, almost sardonically. And then it smiled. Actually _ smiled_, feline and nothing like the calm satisfaction Tim had seen in that hidden canyon, nothing like the desperate, frantic relief of being freed from Howard Clifford’s control. _ Hello, Ash. _

The boy — Ash? — smiled right back. “It’s good to see you, Mewtwo. …Are you alright?”

_ I am… as well as can be, given the circumstances. I do not take to capture and experimentation well. _

“Pi-pika, pikachu!” said the pikachu on Ash’s shoulder, vehemently. Its body was tense like it was ready for a fight, and it had the physique of a fighter too, all lean muscle like the few pikachu Tim had seen in the tournaments he watched back when he was Ash’s age. He'd always paid especial attention to the pikachu, back then, because hardly anyone used pikachu in competitions and because pikachu had always been one of his favorite pokemon.

_ There were several brave humans and pokemon who helped me, however, _ continued Mewtwo. Tim was blushing before his conscious mind had even registered he was being called brave. That was... that was new. _ Once again, I cannot call humanity purely evil. _

Ash scowled. “They better leave you alone now, though.”

_ One can hope, _ said Mewtwo without much conviction, and Tim wondered if that sort of hopelessness was what had had Ash charging up to it and knocking it into a hug. _ How did you know to come? _

How do you know Mewtwo at all, Tim wanted to ask. Who are you, even, other than some ten year old? Why does that greninja look so off? Why did you apologize, what do you know, why are you here, why, if you’re so known to it, didn’t Mewtwo mention you before?

But there was something about the way the two were talking, heavy and intimate with a knowledge he didn’t have, that made him hesitant to interrupt. The others seemed to have caught the mood too, Pikachu and Ash’s pikachu and the greninja and the phantump and that blonde woman (_where _ did Tim know her from?) watching silently as Mewtwo lowered itself until it stood with long two-toed feet on the ground, placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder.

“My friend Max’s Xatu likes to predict calamities,” answered Ash. He didn't react to Mewtwo's touch at all, just kept standing with an unreadable expression on his face and his arm around that strange greninja. “Then the train stopped and we saw you in the sky, so we came running. But, Mewtwo, what _ happened? _ All this—" he waved a hand "—the smoke and everything. The," he shoved his hands together to mime a merge, "that thing. It wasn't you, right?"

_ It was my powers, but it was not my will, _ said Mewtwo.

Ash made a face like he’d tried to eat a lemon.

He didn’t say anything for long enough after that that Tim, looking around and seeing a building burning in the distance, almost got his courage up to interject. But before he could open his mouth, the woman beat him to the punch.

“So you’re Mewtwo!” she said. Tim was _ really _ getting the feeling that he should recognize her, even when her face morphed into a childish, starry-eyed expression of delight. “So cute!”

_ I have… never been called cute before, _ said Mewtwo. Its psychic voice was faint with what Tim thought might be surprise or delight, at odds with the Mewtwo Tim had met so far and at odds with Ryme City ruined all around them. _ Ash, who is your friend? _

Ash grinned, and made a wide flourish with one arm. “That’s Bonnie and her partner Dedenne!”

"Nene!" A dedenne’s head poked out of her psyduck-yellow purse, whiskers twitching and so cute that Tim almost missed the sharp way its eyes took in the surroundings, the faint way electricity shimmered and sparked off the tips of those same whiskers.

"She travelled with me and Pikachu and," Ash gestured at the greninja, "Ash-Greninja when we first went to Kalos!"

"Phaaaan," said the phantump. It was twisting around in the greninja's grip like a curious child.

Ash tapped a rhythm on the top of its stump and smiled at it. "We met Phantump a lot more recently."

Mewtwo inclined its head almost unnoticeably, sunlight turning rough purple skin the texture of watercolor. _ It is good to meet you. _

Tim grimaced, and then interrupted, "Um, Mewtwo—" because he'd glanced to the side during introductions and seen some kind of merged persian moaning soundlessly and couldn't contain himself anymore.

The group all turned their heads towards him at once like remembering Tim was there. He took a step back.

Pikachu gave him a look that said, _ Get on with it. _

He got on it with it, and tried not to sound like he was begging while he did. "Please tell me you can fix this mess."

Mewtwo looked pensive, then decisive. _ I will do what must be done. _ It nodded at Ash. _ Excuse me. _

"Um, good luck!" said Ash. He waved, and Mewtwo took off with that eerie, effortless psychic flight.

"Pika pika!" added his pikachu.

Then he looked around - at the scarred landscape of the city, at the knots of merged pokemon and people scattered on the streets - and seemed to notice Tim for the first time. “Oh! Um, sorry, I didn't introduce myself to you at all!” He ducked his head in a brief bow and smiled disarmingly. “I’m Ash, and this is my partner Pikachu! And that’s my friends Ash-Greninja and Phantump and Bonnie and Dedenne.”

“Uh, hi…” said Tim, more uncertainly than he would have liked, especially given he was faced with a ten year old. But that ten year old had more composure than most adults and Tim's world had spent the past half-week ending over and over again, so he cut himself some slack. “I’m Tim, Tim Goodman, and this is, um,” he paused, “also my partner Pikachu?”

“Way to make me feel second-rate,” grumbled Pikachu. “Some gratitude.”

“_ You _ try finishing that sentence, then,” suggested Tim.

Pikachu scowled at him, all mock-offended, and suddenly Tim was back to barely being able to keep down a smile. Suddenly he wasn't thinking about screaming, or Howard Clifford's face, or buildings crumbling like sandcastles, because he had— he had a _ partner. _

“Aww, you’re so close to each other!” gushed the blonde woman. What was her name, Bertha or something? Bonnie, that was it. Bonnie. And she was from the Kalos region.

And her partner was a dedenne.

"Arceus above," breathed Tim, and his eyes widened as he finally figured out where he knew her from. “You’re the _ Champion of Kalos._”

"That's me!" She gave a little wave. "Bonnie of Lumiose City!"

"Yeah, Bonnie's awesome!" said Ash.

Her championship challenge against Former Champion Diantha had been playing in the break room at work only a month ago, and despite all his efforts Tim's eyes had drawn him back to it over and over. The casual grace of the reigning Champion, the challenger's calm determination and absolute _ monster _ of a dedenne (which, oh— Kyogre, that was the dedenne in her purse), the shocked delight on her face when she won, the running joke in the office for days afterwards about how Champion Bonnie was introduced as a fairy-type specialist but half her championship team had been dragons.

A thought occurred to Tim, and he forcibly picked his jaw up from where it had fallen to vocalize it. "But wait, if you're the Champion of Kalos, why aren't you in Kalos? And uh, not to be rude, but why are you hanging out with a little kid?" 

"Absolutely horrible at talking to girls," grumbled Pikachu from the ground. Tim pretended he hadn't heard and glanced over to see Ash, who had a staraptor in front of him now, head slightly inclined in some conversation with it and the other pokemon around him, and okay, so maybe the little kid was apparently friends with Mewtwo of all pokemon, but still. He was a little kid. She was the Champion of Kalos?

Champion Bonnie leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Don't tell him I said this, but Ash is actually older than me."

"Um," said Tim.

"I'm ten!" shouted Ash, and then went back to his conversation.

Champion Bonnie shouted right back: "You were ten when I was seven!"

"So?" shouted Ash. "Doesn't make me not ten now!"

"Pika pika!" agreed Ash's pikachu.

"What." Pikachu's voice was as flat as Tim had ever heard it. "That makes no sense."

Tim beckoned him onto his shoulder and said back. "I'm as clueless as you are, great detective."

"Don't sass me, kid," said Pikachu, without any bite.

Champion Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Ash's been ten for like two decades, don't worry about it."

Tim took in that information and concluded that these were the sort of people who wouldn't even blink if he said he could understand his dad's pikachu. He hadn't gotten far enough in the train of thought to tell whether that was a compliment or not, though. (Probably not, but then, where did that leave Tim?)

"That doesn't make sense either," deadpanned Pikachu.

"Bonn-_ie_," said Ash.

His pikachu said something sardonic, and Pikachu snorted. Tim wondered if all pikachu had the same sarcastic personality.

"What!" said Champion Bonnie.

Her dedenne said "Nenene!" and Tim had to remind himself that he'd seen it take down a mega-gardevoir on its own, because it was unfairly adorable just hanging out in Champion Bonnie's purse like that.

Ash didn't deign to respond except by making exactly the kind of face Tim expected to see on a ten-year-old. Then he untangled his arm from the strange greninja's shoulder and the phantump's head and ruffled the feathers just above the staraptor's beak. It leaned into the touch with obvious affection; Ash slipped fingers through its overhanging crest and held up a pokeball, tilted his head. "Your call. You were fantastic, thanks so much!"

"Raptor!" cawed the staraptor, and returned itself.

Tim suppressed a surge of old, outdated jealousy at the confirmation that Ash was a pokemon trainer too. That was in the past, discarded with his childhood bedroom and his relationship with his father, and just because he'd been thinking about the past a lot the last few days didn't mean he should be jealous of a ten year old. Even one who had apparently been ten as long as Tim had been alive, and who was living the life Tim had dreamed up for himself as a kid.

In the distance, Tim could hear shouting, and he hoped it was the joyous kind. He hoped Lucy was alright.

"Heard from Kommo-o yet?" Ash asked Champion Bonnie. "Staraptor came back to let me know things weren't so bad, cause of Mewtwo."

"You'd've heard if I had," said Bonnie. "Staraptor probably just got here faster, because of how it can fly."

The staraptor manifested itself in a streak of light, said "Staraptor!" very smugly, and returned itself again.

"Yeah, I'd say that woman's right," said Pikachu dryly. "She really a Champion? Good thing you’ve already got a crush, cause she’s way out of your league.”

“_Stop,_” said Tim, making a face and a halfhearted attempt at shoving Pikachu off his shoulder. “And was that a _ pun?_”

That was about when a gleaming kommo-o clanged up the street, sending still-recovering people and pokemon skittering to press up against buildings. Even in Ryme City, anyone sensible stayed well out of the way of a kommo-o in prime fighting condition, especially when it was rattling its scales like an entire orchestra’s worth of cymbals. 

Champion Bonnie dashed right up to it and threw her arms around its neck. 

“Hi there!” she said, as it bent its neck with a jangling like coins and licked her across the forehead. “I’m glad you’re alright!”

“Kommo-o,” said the kommo-o. “O kommo-o.”

“Glad to hear it!” She palmed a pokeball. “Take a good long rest, okay?”

The kommo-o leaned down to lick her forehead again, and then disappeared into light. Tim turned his head to glance at Pikachu on his shoulder and caught himself smiling. He had a _ partner. _

Champion Bonnie put the pokeball away and turned back to Ash, like she hadn’t just hugged a kommo-o in full battle stance. “Anyways,” she said, “I really don't see why they put all this effort to merge pokemon and humans when you _ and _ Ash-Greninja are right here.”

Ash's pikachu laughed, and Ash said, to the greninja, "Everything’s wrapping up. We should be good to drop the bond now, you think?"

The strange-looking greninja nodded solemnly, and then— it _ changed. _ Resemblance to Ash Tim hadn't really noticed melted away, blues darkening, reds dissipating, yellows making themselves known. The disc of water at its back faded back into vapor, and a tension bled out of Ash's posture until he was standing straighter, more human-like.

"Okay, so Greninja isn't Ash-Greninja anymore," conceded Champion Bonnie. "But those conspiracy theorists Tracey was talking about were right, you're still basically a pokemon."

Ash opened his mouth to interject, but Champion Bonnie didn't give him a chance. 

"And you can't even complain! Cause I had to drag you away from training Aura Sphere with Lucario and with Korrina giving you tips like she was your trainer to come to my _ championship match. _"

This sounded like a well-trodden argument, and one Tim had absolutely no context for. He was still playing that greninja’s transformation backwards in his head, playing Ash’s change of stance and demeanor backwards in his head. They’d been calling the greninja Ash-Greninja, too, like it was the kind of composite those unnatural merges had tried to be — Tim felt like there was a whole chain of clues he was missing. 

"Not you _ too,_" complained Ash. He took the phantump out of the greninja's hands and stroked the tuft of darkness above its head, gently. Then he said to the greninja, "Thanks for keeping Phantump safe. Lemme know if you want a rest, okay? We were linked for awhile."

"Ninja," replied the greninja. It gestured at Ash with its chin and added, "Ninja greninja."

"I'm _ fine, _" said Ash. The greninja slipped a pointedly supportive arm around him as his pikachu snorted. "I'm not gonna sit down, you guys!"

If Tim was being honest, which he generally was in the habit of, they looked more like a family than a trainer and pokemon. 

"Not to side with the pokemon, but we did just run for like an hour or something," said Champion Bonnie. "And you two were holding the bond-evolution for most of that. I’d be dead on my feet if Audino stayed mega-evolved that long.”

Tim remembered that mega audino from the championship match, all frilly grace and enough power to knock Diantha’s hawlucha out of the air with a Fire Punch. He remembered the kommo-o too, but mostly from the jokes about half of Champion Bonnie’s team being dragons. He said, “What’s it like, being the Champion?” He paused. “Being a pokemon trainer.”

“Tim,” said Pikachu, something in his voice like a warning, but now that Tim had started talking, he couldn’t stop.

He gestured at Ash. “I always wanted to be a pokemon trainer when I was a kid, but then life happened, and I gave up on it. But then there you are, so self-assured?”

“But you have a pikachu?” said Ash. He’d tilted his head a little to the side, and he was leaning minutely back into the greninja’s arm after all. His pikachu, meanwhile, had jumped off his shoulder and was playing a game of tag with the phantump and Champion Bonnie’s dedenne. 

“No dignity,” muttered Pikachu, meaning the pokemon.

“He was my dad’s partner,” said Tim to Ash. And then, ashamed of himself, he added: “We’re partners now though, of course. But—”

“But it still doesn’t feel real, does it?” said Ash. There was an intensity in his eyes that didn’t belong on a ten year old at all. But then, Tim hadn’t interacted with kids since he was one, so what would he know? Maybe all pre-teens could stare in a way that pierced the soul, that implied knowledge and experience Tim couldn’t even fathom.

He doubted it, though.

“No,” he said. “Not really.”

Pikachu said, “Kid…”

“You know,” said Champion Bonnie, as her dedenne clambered up her body, over her shoulders, and down her other arm to evade the phantump, “I basically became a trainer at age seven. My brother caught Dedenne for me, because I wouldn’t let him alone about wanting a pokemon to take care of, and we trained with him and Ash and Serena and all their pokemon while we were travelling. And Serena got her first pokemon at fourteen!” She gestured. “So you can become a pokemon trainer whenever you want!"

Easy for you to say, Champion of Kalos, Tim didn't say. He shook his head a little. “But what if that’s not what I want?”

“Then do what you _ do _want,” said Ash, like it was obvious. His tone was the kind of incredulous only kids could really manage, and it was loaded with the implication that Tim was an idiot.

“It’s not that easy!” said Tim, a little more indignantly than he would readily admit.

“Says who!” said Ash. 

“Are you sure you’re not _ both _ten years old?” said Pikachu. 

“Ash—” said Bonnie.

_ It is done, _ said Mewtwo, and Tim jumped.

“You’re back,” he said, as Mewtwo floated down out of the sky, a small frown marring its serene expression. 

_ I am, _ said Mewtwo. _ There is only one thing I have yet to repair. _ It raised an arm in Tim’s direction, and then paused abruptly. _ Wait. _

In that instant, several things happened. Ash and Champion Bonnie both produced pokeballs, opened their mouths to call commands. Ash’s pikachu paused midstep in its game of tag, all the levity falling off it like a dusting of snow. The greninja moved almost faster than the eye, scooping up the phantump in one smooth motion and reappearing at Ash’s side. The dedenne pivoted midstep and leapt to a position at the pikachu’s back. 

“Okay,” said Pikachu faintly. “Some dignity.”

_ Ah, _ said Mewtwo. It ducked its head in some sort of apology. _ I did not mean to cause alarm. I was simply surprised to notice our audience. _

“Oh, oops,” said Ash, and untensed. He sounded sheepish, but then so did Mewtwo. 

Ash’s pikachu dropped out of its battle stance and rushed over to the phantump; the dedenne clambered up Champion Bonnie’s front and planted itself on her head. She reached up to scratch its neck and said, “Oh, huh, we do have an audience!”

Tim glanced around. The people and pokemon he’d spotted earlier had obviously spotted them back, and a good number of them were clustered nearby their little group. Some of them were pointing at Mewtwo. Some of them were pointing at Champion Bonnie. None of them were pointing at Tim, which he decided was a good thing.

Mewtwo’s eyes flicked from side to side. _ I do not— _

And then Ash had his hands on it again, picking up one three-fingered hand between both of his own and smiling gentle as Tim’s mom used to smile. “That last thing can wait a minute, can’t it?” he said. “Till we get somewhere quieter.”

Mewtwo looked at Ash for a long moment, and then smiled back, that smile that wasn’t desperate or relieved or anything definable at all. _ Yes, _ it said, in a telepathic voice light like rain. _ That… would be nice. _

“Let’s go, then!” said Ash. Champion Bonnie shifted her dedenne from her head to her purse and walked up to them, patted the phantump’s head. Ash stopped smiling at Mewtwo to smile at her, instead.

And then Mewtwo gestured with its chin to Tim and Pikachu, pointed, and floated off towards the city limits, people scattering around it and Ash still holding its hand. 

“Well?” said Ash, surrounded by his entourage of pokemon. He turned back, just a little. “You coming?”

And Tim, Pikachu laughing on his shoulder, scrambled to catch up.

**Author's Note:**

> so that’s what bonnie and max have been up to! well, mostly bonnie. you’ll get more on max when i learn to write epistolary-style fic so i can give him the email-exchange content this dumbass academic deserves  
some other members of bonnie’s championship team are a granbull and of course, tyrantrum!  
(as you may have noticed. i love the kids. gimme all the younger siblings. provide me that good sibling content. thank you.)
> 
> deleted paragraph:  
“We even had a warning, though!” said Ash. “I mean, Max’s Xatu was just all like,” he wiggled his fingers, “‘doom and terror will befall Ryme City,’ but that’s just kinda how Xatu is? Max said it learned telepathy just to mess with people.”


End file.
